The Community-Led Accelerated WASH Phase Four (COWASH IV) project hosted a successful event on June 9, 2025, at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa that brought together key stakeholders in Ethiopia’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) sector. The engagement featured the screening of three selected documentaries from the project’s six-part series, “Transforming Lives, Empowering Communities,” followed by a panel discussion exploring challenges and opportunities in Ethiopia’s sanitation and hygiene sector.

Professionals from different sectors attended the event including representatives from non-governmental organizations, researchers from Addis Ababa University, students and members of the private sector. The documentaries served as a powerful testament to the human impact of WASH initiatives, setting a compelling stage for the subsequent expert analysis.

A panel of distinguished experts steered the conversation, which delved into the opportunities and challenges shaping the sector. The panel featured Waltaji Terfa KUTANE, a Senior Environmental Health Expert with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Ethiopia, bringing 25 years of public health expertise to the discussion. He was joined by Melaku Worku Befekadu, the WASH Programs Officer and Advocacy Coordinator for IRC WASH Ethiopia, who has over 16 years of experience in policy advocacy and rural WASH implementation. The third panelist was Neil Chadder, the Chief Technical Advisor at COWASH IV and a seasoned specialist with four decades of experience across 18 countries.

The discussion focused on the most significant obstacles hindering progress in sanitation and hygiene across Ethiopia. The panelists examined the effectiveness of current policies and the institutional capacity for implementation, questioning whether existing frameworks are sufficiently enabling. They also explored socio-cultural and behavioral barriers to the adoption of sustainable hygiene practices and debated strategies for fostering genuine community leadership and ownership of WASH solutions.

A central theme of the dialogue was the power of local financial mechanisms, inspired by the documentary “Building with Savings: Community Ownership.” The conversation focused on how to best strengthen and scale up community-led financing and market-based sanitation centers. The goal, as discussed by the panel, is to create a supportive ecosystem that allows communities to independently drive, access, and maintain their own WASH improvements affordably, without creating dependency on external aid.

Reflecting on the profound socio-economic changes illustrated in the documentary “Beyond WASH: A Success Story,” the panel also explored the significant, and often unmeasured, indirect benefits that reliable WASH access can unlock. The event concluded with a consensus on that community ownership and innovative local solutions are key to moving the WASH sector forward. The active participation from sector professionals led to a fruitful exchange, with many important points raised about the way forward.